Google announces opening of new data center in London

Google has backed up its claim to remain unaffected in the wake of Brexit as the company today announced the opening of new data center in London. The exact location of the aforementioned data center has yet to be disclosed, with the facility set to become Google’s second in Europe, after its data center in Brussels. The core function of the new facility will be to provide full-time support to British users of the Google Cloud platform.

Ever-increasing competition in the public cloud sector has led to an arms race among tech firms to beef up the efficiency and accessibility of their cloud computing solutions. According to a recent Gartner study, Google Cloud finds itself playing third fiddle to Amazon’s AWS and Microsoft’s Azure in terms of overall worldwide performance. The technology consultancy also added that by measure of sales in the cloud infrastructure-as-a-service market, Google’s share was also a “distant third”.

With ground to make up, Google maintains confidence that the new London data center will go a long way in furthering the company’s cloud interests. Managing Director of Google UK and Ireland, Ronan Harris, echoed his firm’s belief when he stated:

[London] is the home of digital innovation. This announcement today I think brings that innovation even closer to the great technologists, scientists, and entrepreneurs that exist in the UK and are working today on the next industries, industries such as AI, as virtual reality, and as augmented reality.

This new infrastructure is going to enable and empower that even further, and it’s also going to empower existing businesses to be able to take advantage to drive productivity. It also underlines Google’s continued commitment to the UK; as well as this we are also investing in our new offices up at King’s Cross.

While announcing the opening of its new London facility, Google also revealed plans to establish similar centers in Finland, Frankfurt and The Netherlands.